DRINKERS across Teesside are being warned it is not just those who binge or alcoholics who put their health at risk.

A new YouGov poll shows more than half (57%) of drinkers in the North-East believe alcohol only damages your health if you regularly get drunk or binge drink.

And a total of 34% of Middlesbrough respondents to Balance North East’s Big Drink debate admitted drinking six to eight units per sitting on a weekly basis.

However, while 90% of North-east drinkers in the YouGov survey know alcohol is related to liver disease, far fewer realise it is also linked with breast cancer (11%), throat cancer (33%), mouth cancer (26%), stroke (42%) and heart disease (64%).

Colin Shevills, director of Balance, said: “Many suffer few immediate consequences, but over time it takes its toll. In the North-east, rates of death from alcohol related liver disease increased by just under a third between 2004 and 2008, while alcohol specific hospital admissions are up to 62% higher than the national average.”

The figures were released to correspond with today’s launch of a £6m Government-funded campaign, which will show drinkers the unseen damage regular drinking can do to their organs.

The Department of Health developed the campaign with Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation and the Stroke Association.

In Hartlepool, 5% of people who responded to a survey by Balance North East admitted drinking 6-8 units daily or almost daily.

The figure for Redcar was 35% compared with 31% across the whole of the North-east who drink this amount weekly.

Middlesbrough also had a higher percentage of frequent drinkers, with 12% drinking on at least six seperate occasions per week, compared to a North-east average of 10%.

The figure for Stockton was also above the regional average at 11%.

Balance is the alcohol office for the North-East - the first of its kind in the UK.